


Rhyme Crime

by dragon_with_a_teacup



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, RIORDAN Rick - Works, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Between The Blood of Olympus (Heroes of Olympus) and The Hidden Oracle (Trials of Apollo), Crushes, First Kiss, Fluff, Humor, Kayla ships Solangelo, M/M, Post-The Blood of Olympus (Heroes of Olympus), Rhyming, Will Solace is a Dork, solangelo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2019-06-17
Packaged: 2020-05-13 03:09:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19242601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragon_with_a_teacup/pseuds/dragon_with_a_teacup
Summary: Will accidentally curses Nico to speak only in rhyming couplets. Nico is as amused as one might expect.





	Rhyme Crime

Will Solace may have been a healer first and an archer second, but that didn’t mean he didn’t sometimes feel a  _ visceral  _ urge to get out of the infirmary once and a while and go shoot things.

He stood the proper distance from the targets, breathing in the fresh air. This was nice, he reflected. He needed to get out sometimes; it was good for him.

The bow felt familiar in his hand, as did the arrow, which he nocked. He exhaled, long and slow, trying to ease his heartbeat. This would be good for him. He hadn’t done much archery lately, each time he’d picked up his bow he’d been unable to shoot straight. Memories of his half-brother Michael always seemed to drift into his mind, persistent and painful. The urge to shoot usually disappeared rather quickly after that. He was lucky he hadn’t had to shoot during the battle at Camp Half-Blood; he was sure he’d have frozen.

“Come on, Will,” he murmured to himself, “you can do this. You’ve got to get back in shape. Nothing bad will happen.”

He took aim, ignoring the recollection of Michael correcting his aim, years ago. Come on, he insisted, focus.

Luckily, a distraction from his morose thoughts soon arrived, for at the worst possible moment, Nico di Angelo appeared. He stood in front of Will’s target, which he leaned against, apparently fatigued. Will cried out, fumbled with his bow, but it was too late—the arrow let fly. It shot past Nico, cutting into his arm along the way before embedding itself in the target with a thud.

“Ow!” Nico yelped, collapsing.

“Oh shit,” Will groaned. He dropped his bow and rushed forward. “I’m sorry, Nico, I tried to stop when I saw you there. I swear.”

“What the hell is this?” Nico exclaimed, pressing a hand over the bleeding gash in his arm and wincing. “I thought for sure you were going to miss!”

“So did I.” Will staggered forward. “Oh gods, I’m so sorry. Here, let me help.”

“No, it’s okay. I’m fine,” he grumbled. “You know me, I’m not one to whine.”

Will chuckled in spite of himself. “That rhymed. Now come here.”

Nico rolled his eyes, but allowed Will to examine the wound. The arrowhead hadn’t slashed too deep; the wound really only needed a few stitches. Will sighed in relief. “It’s not as bad as I thought.”

“Well, I guess that’s just as well,” Nico said as Will helped him up. As he did so, he flinched slightly. “But as it is, it hurts like hell.”

Will stopped. Nico himself frowned, as if wondering where that had come from. One rhyming statement didn’t necessarily mean anything, but three now…?

“Oh, shit,” Will hissed, staggering backwards in horror.

Nico tilted his head, but now seemed reluctant to speak. Will, meanwhile, raked the fingers of his clean hand through his hair.

“Nico, I… I think I might have made a mistake.”

The son of Hades raised his eyebrows. “Gee, what makes you think that? That fact that you just shot me, you… twat?”

Will buried his face in his hands, but not before he caught sight of the bewildered look on Nico’s face. A moment later, though, Nico was tugging his hands away.

“What is happening to me? This… this isn’t normal, don’t you agree?” he asked, his hands gesturing more and more animatedly with each word.

Will tried to calm himself. He was a healer after all, and Nico was an injured patient. He knew how to deal with that. Sure, the patient usually wasn’t bleeding because Will had shot him, but that was beside the point.

“Come on,” he muttered guiltily. “I’ll see if my siblings can help.”

He took Nico by the good arm and led him away from the archery field. Nico seemed so flustered he didn’t resist. Will hoped he would stay silent until they reached the infirmary, but no such luck.

“Will,” Nico’s voice was soft, but too irritated to be mistaken for gentle, “tell me what you did, you abominable squid.”

Will couldn’t help but chuckle. Rhymes seemed to be making Nico’s speech even more creative than usual. Then, when Nico stomped on his foot in impatience, he sighed. “I… well, I might have accidentally shot you with a cursed arrow. Like, the kind that…” He flinched, swallowed, and continued, “the kind that curses you to speak only in rhyming couplets?”

Nico froze. Will stopped as well and turned to face him. “Curses me for how long?” Nico demanded, eyes wide. “I’m the son of Hades! Me, rhyming, is wrong!”

Will nodded. “I know, it’s a cruel spell. I… Well, I’m not sure how long it’ll last.”

He tensed as Nico’s nostrils flared, and wondered if he needed to start running. “I can help you, though. I can stitch up your arm, and my siblings and I can figure out how to fix… the rest.”

Nico’s hands were clenched at his sides, but after a few strained moments, exhaled slowly. “I guess I have no choice. But work fast or  _ you _ will have no  _ voice _ .”

— — — 

Kayla took the news without laughing, which Will admired. She and Will managed to convince a now willfully mute Nico to sit down in the infirmary. While Kayla started stitching up the gash, Will found some nectar. He eyed the bottle, deliberating. Maybe downing the entire thing would help him escape Nico’s wrath. Then again, if he did that, he’d likely end up in the Underworld… and Nico could just find him there to beat him up…

He poured a small measure of nectar into the cup and—somewhat ruefully—left the rest behind.

“Here,” he said once he reached the other two. “Drink this.”

Nico eyed it. “Please tell me it’s a cure. Because I hate  _ this _ , that’s for sure.” He pointed to his own mouth to indicate his affliction.

Will resisted the urge to fidget. “Well, no, it’s not a cure, but it is nectar.”

“Hmph.” Nico scowled, but took the cup and downed it.

“So, Will,” Kayla said, her tone too close to sly for comfort, “how did you end up shooting Nico with a rhyme arrow?”

Will sputtered as both his sister’s and Nico’s eyes fixed upon him. He’d been wracking his brains for the last few minutes regarding that very topic. “I… I don’t know. I must have grabbed the wrong quiver when I left the cabin this morning…”

Kayla snorted. “Well, good job.” She expertly tied off the last stitch and snipped the excess cord. “Okay, Nico, you’re good to go.” Then, quailing under a gaze that would have made Medusa proud, she added, “In terms of your arm, that is.”

Nico crossed his arms and scowled at the pair of them. Apparently he’d decided speaking was too humiliating and so had fallen back on his old pastime of glaring.

“Listen…” Will began awkwardly. “We don’t know how long this spell will last. It always seems to depend on the person. Once it lasted, like, two weeks—”

Nico stood so fast he might have used magic. Will stumbled back in surprise, though Kayla only shifted out of the way, her eyebrows raised. Nico ignored both their reactions in favor of getting in Will’s face. He raised two fingers incredulously.

“Well, it probably won’t last that long in your case,” Will stammered. “Think about it. That arrow barely hit you. So you didn’t get as big a dose of the spell as you might have. That, and your metabolism is good, so it should work its way out of your system efficiently. I’d guess only a couple days…?”

He glanced at Kayla for support, but she only shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t know. Could be, on average, anywhere from two to sixteen days, from cases we’ve seen. Well, caused.”

Nico’s eye was twitching. Will surveyed him—his taut frame, his clenched fists, his set mouth, his bandaged arm—and felt guilt surge up again within him. “Look, Nico, I’m really sorry, truly. I didn’t mean for this to happen. I feel awful—”

But before he could continue, before he could vow to somehow make amends, Nico cut him off.

“I hope you get beat up by a trucker. I hate you so much right now, you dumb mother—”

“ _ Nico! _ ” Kayla gasped, scandalized.

But the son of Hades just pushed past them both and stormed out of the infirmary without a backward glance.

— — — 

“Why wasn’t Nico at dinner?” Will mused that evening. “He can’t be so angry about this that he’s decided to avoid eating…”

“I don’t know,” Kayla said. She turned a page in her book, resolutely ignoring Will pacing back and forth in front of her bed.

“Come to think of it, did you see him at lunch? I didn’t.”

Kayla glanced at him. “Not that I recall, but I don’t tend to keep tabs on him like you do.”

Something insinuating in her tone made Will blush. “I don’t ‘keep tabs’ on him. I just… As a healer, it’s my job to make sure everyone at camp gets the nutrition they need. Being a demigod is dangerous enough as it is with the monsters and all…”

“Right.” A smirk tugged at Kayla’s lips. “Your obsessive attention to Nico di Angelo is simply professional interest. Of course.”

“It is! And it’s not an obsession, it’s observation.” Will frowned at her. “I don’t know what you’re implying—”

“I’m not implying anything,” she said as she sat up, setting her book to the side with a rueful sigh. “I do think, though, that as a healer if you really want to make sure Nico is okay, you should go check on him. It’s not curfew yet.”

Will stopped pacing. “But—”

“Will,” she snapped. “Please get out of here, for all our sakes.”

He glanced around. His other siblings were trying to do their best to appear as if they weren’t eavesdropping, except for Austin, who grinned unabashedly and teasingly at Will.

“Okay, okay,” he grumbled.

Kayla smiled. “Go get ’em, tiger.”

“Shut up!”

She gave him a too-innocent look, but as he moved away from her and she went back to her book, he heard her mutter under her breath, “Rhyming couplets… more like a couple of idiots.”

Will didn’t dignify that with a reply.

He pulled on his shoes without making eye contact with anyone, then hurried outside. Once safely out of his siblings’ sight, he smoothed down his hair and made for the Hades cabin. However, halfway there, he paused and spun around. Nico hadn’t eaten that day, as far as Will knew. Time for a quick side trip—the Hermes kids always had food stashed in their place.

He managed to obtain an armful of snack food—some from the camp’s supplies and some smuggled in from the mortal world by satyrs—from the Stolls without too much drama (well, after promising not to rat them out to Mr. D, that was).

Now, standing before the closed door of the Hades cabin, Will took a deep breath. “Hey, Nico?” he called, knocking.

No answer.

“Nico, please open the door.”

Nothing.

“I, umm, I noticed you weren’t at dinner and thought you might be hungry.”

Was he even there?

“Nico?” Will shuffled his feet, doubt filling him. This was probably a stupid idea, and now all the Apollo and Hermes kids knew what he was up to,  _ and _ probably had heard about the earlier archery mishap. Great.

He tried one more time. “I brought you some candy bars. Well, among other things.”

There—a small sound from within, like a chair shifting across the floor. “What kind?”

“Several,” Will replied, relieved. “Uh, let’s see… I’ve got Twix, Crunch, Almond Joy—”

The door swung open. Nico, still looking slightly murderous, reached out and snatched the Almond Joys out of Will’s hands. At the sight of the other foods, however, he raised his eyebrows. “You’re out of your mind.”

So the curse was still affecting him. Guilt flooded through Will once more, and jolted him into speech. “What, because I want to take care of you? I just thought you’d want something to eat. So there’s some chips, strawberries—”

“I don’t need you to take care of me,” Nico said, voice cool. “I’d much rather you leave me be.”

He closed the door. From the other side, Will could hear the sound of a candy wrapper opening. Taking that as a good sign, he hesitated to leave.

“Listen, I know you’re mad,” he began, “but I really am sorry. I didn’t mean to shoot you, and I definitely didn’t know they were the rhyming arrows. I know it’s embarrassing, rhyming all the time. But Kayla told me earlier that she really is sure the curse won’t last too long on you, since it was just a graze. You’ll probably be fine in the morning. But if not…” Will swallowed. “I mean, I get that you don’t want to face anyone, but you still need to take care of yourself. Or at least let me help you. A-as your doctor, I mean.”

No reply came from within, and Will sighed. Night was falling, and he would have to head back to his cabin soon. “Well, I’ll leave the rest of this stuff here, okay? And I’ll come check on you in the morning.”

He laid out the food by the doorstep, then straightened up. Apparently no reply was forthcoming. “Well, goodnight.”

— — — 

The snack food was gone by the next morning. Will hoped Nico had taken it inside to eat and hadn’t thrown it in the lake or something.

“Rise and shine, Death Boy!” he called. “I brought you breakfast! I hope you like chocolate chip pancakes!”

A long pause passed before Nico replied, after a drawn-out sigh. “You know what? You’re lucky, Will. Because your first name rhymes with  _ kill _ . So go away, right now, okay?”

Will edged away from the door, glancing with trepidation at the ground. He hoped homicidal skeletons weren’t about to emerge from the earth and throttle him. “I’m, um, not feeling too lucky about that, frankly. Besides, everyone likes chocolate chip pancakes! Come on out!”

Nico didn’t answer, and now Will was the one to sigh. Clearly the curse was still in effect. He sat down on the porch next to the door. “I’m still here, in case you were hoping I’d left.”

He heard a groan from inside. Apparently that didn’t need a rhyme to go with it.

“So, I had a question,” he continued. He knew this was humiliating for Nico, but didn’t want to leave him alone while he was going through something distressing. “What were you doing, shadow-traveling to the middle of the archery field?”

“It was just practice,” Nico muttered. His voice was close, as if he were leaning against the other side of the door. “At least I didn’t land on top of a cactus.”

He cursed then, but too low to hear clearly. Will fidgeted, not sure where to go from there, and glanced down at the plate balanced on his knees. “Your food is getting cold, you know.”

Neither of them spoke, but then the door cracked open slightly. Nico peeked out, dark brown eyes only mildly reproachful.

“Hey,” Will smiled. “Welcome to the land of the living.”

Nico raised an eyebrow, and Will backpedaled. “I mean… I didn’t mean that as a reference to your dad… I just mean, welcome back outside.”

Nico rolled his eyes, but he did sit down beside Will, who handed him the plate. After a brief hesitation, Nico picked up the fork and shoveled a large bite into his mouth.

“I don’t like chocolate chip pancakes,” he commented, then frowned. “And all this rhyming is giving me headaches.”

“It… it could be worse,” Will offered. “That one wasn’t even all that noticeable.” It wasn’t a good rhyme, either, but Will neglected to point that out. He was sure Nico knew that.

Nico fixed him with a look that, even yesterday, would have made Will quail. Today, however, he only gave a sheepish grin. “You’ll be a regular Lin-Manuel Miranda soon.”

“Mmhmm,” Nico said, not sounding convinced at all. He stuffed another bite in his mouth.

“So…” Will resisted the urge to fidget. He hadn’t had many opportunities to speak with the son of Hades one-on-one since immediately after the big battle of gods and titans. He’d forgotten how flustered he could feel around him. “Getting back into shadow-travel?”

Nico shrugged.

“I hope you’re being careful,” Will warned. “You know it’s dangerous.”

Nico nodded, with another subtle eye roll.

“Sorry,” Will said, face reddening. “I don’t mean to nag. I know it’s an important skill for you to have, I just… I wouldn’t want to see you get hurt or anything. You almost got yourself killed doing it during the battle, after all.”

Nico fixed him with a quizzical look. He seemed to be avoiding speaking unless absolutely necessary—Will couldn’t blame him—but his question was clear:  _ Why do you care so much about me? _

If this were a cartoon, Will mused, there would probably be the sound effect of car brakes squealing right now. “Uhhh…” He shrugged, though he was sure it ended up looking more like a spasm. “Well, I mean… as a doctor, I’m obligated…”

But Nico was smiling now. If Will didn’t know any better, he would think there was a slight blush on Nico’s cheeks.

Will rushed on. “Look, it’s just… you never seem to hang out with anyone, and yet you’re cool and smart and… I… well, it seems like you could use a… friend. Or something.”

Unable to stand his own idiocy anymore, he stood and backed away, but an uneven patch of ground at the end of the porch nearly sent him head over heels into the dirt. At the last second, he caught himself and straightened up, brushing off his shirt.

“Well, I better go,” he said hastily. Nico only looked up at him, surprise mingling with amusement on his face. Will raised his hands and awkwardly shot finger-guns at him as he backed away. “Uhh, bye!”

— — — 

By the time he got back to the Apollo cabin, despite being out of breath, he thought he might at least look like he hadn’t just severely humiliated himself. 

As luck would have it, only Kayla was inside. Upon spotting him, she raised her eyebrows. “What happened to you?”

“N-nothing.”

“Mmhmm.” She looked unconvinced. “How’s Nico?”

“Fine! But that… that’s not the point.” He sank onto his bed, avoiding her gaze cleverly by burying his face in his hands. “Shut up.”

Next to him, the bed sank down as Kayla joined him. “Will, look at me.”

He didn’t, but he sighed. “What?”

“Can you just be honest with me, and with yourself, for one second?”

He lifted his head. “What do you mean?”

“You’ve been acting off ever since Nico got hurt, and I know you. You have a crush on him, don’t you?”

“I…” He hung his head. “I don’t know.”

“Don’t you?”

He groaned. “Why do you have to be so logical all the time?”

“How is this a particularly logical debate?” she asked, amused. “I’m just pointing out that you are in serious denial, bro. Snap out of it. I think you’d be a cute couple.”

“You do?” He met her gaze, searching for any sign of deception, but he only found sincerity.

She rolled her eyes. “No, I said that for fun. Yes, I do think that, you absolute dweeb.”

Will didn’t laugh, though normally her sarcasm could make him laugh when nothing else could. “But there’s no way he likes me. He’s so…”

“Aloof? Solitary? Hella spooky sometimes?”

That did make Will chuckle. “No, I mean, he’s clever and brave and he’s been on all these adventures.”

She tilted her head. “Are you seriously selling yourself short, Will Healer-Archer-Midwife-Motorcycle-Riding Solace?”

“Okay, I rode a motorcycle one time, and Percy was the one driving.”

“And how many people can say they’ve been on a motorcycle with  _ the _ Percy Jackson? One: you. That’s pretty cool!”

“Okay, but—”

“And who saved  _ the _ Annabeth Chase’s life during that same battle? You.”

“Any one of us could have done that—”

“And who delivered a baby satyr in the middle of a war? Who helped sabotage the onagers? Who made sure our siblings and I all stayed fed and healthy while we were healing everyone?”

He smiled at her. “I have to say, this is a pretty good pep talk.”

She beamed, triumphant. “See? Nico has every reason to be into you. So, why don’t you tell him how you feel?”

If he’d been drinking, he’d have spit it out in response to that. “I can’t do that!”

“Yes, you can.” She grabbed his shoulders and turned him to face her directly. “Because, to be honest, you’re annoying me. Take a risk, and put me out of my misery. Mopey, pining Will is tiring. I want happy-go-lucky, dorky Will back.”

He laughed, though dread and anxiety still flowed through him at the thought of admitting to Nico what Will himself had been purposefully ignoring. “Well, if it’ll help you…” He stood, and Kayla mirrored him, her smile smug. “But if I get thrown into the Acheron river for this, it’s your fault.”

“Fair enough. Now go get your man.”

— — — 

By the time Will worked up the nerve to even approach the Hades cabin, the sun was nearing the horizon. He had spent most of the day practicing his avoidance skills—hiding in the Hephaestus cabin, “helping” them with their various projects; walking around the lake; lurking behind the Big House in the hopes that none of his siblings would spot him. Now, running out of time before curfew, he finally decided to bite the bullet. Streaks of red and pink and orange lit up the clouds, bathing Camp Half-Blood in shades of fire. Hopefully that would help disguise the blush Will was sure to have during this impending debacle.

To his surprise, Nico opened the door almost right away. Seeing Will, he sighed and leaned against the doorframe, with a gesture like,  _ Well? What do you want now?  _ It didn’t help that the light of the setting sun made Nico’s skin glow with a golden hue, and made dazzling streaks of copper appear in his hair.

“H-hey, hi,” Will said, forcing himself to focus. “It’s me again. I wanted…” His throat decided at that moment to close up, and he was forced to swallow several times before he regained the ability to speak. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”

Nico crossed his arms, expression expectant. Somehow, the intensity of his dark-eyed gaze did not imbue Will with much confidence. He shifted his weight, kicking absently at the ground with the toe of his shoe.

“Well, Will?” Nico prompted.

Will half-wished Nico would open up a fissure in the earth so he didn’t have to continue the conversation. Why had he agreed to do this?

“I, uh…” he began. Great start. “Listen, I know we haven’t got to talk much since you came to see me in the infirmary after the battle, but… I want to fix that. I… want to get to know you more. I mean, better. Because you’re really, well, interesting and cool.”

Interesting and cool? What are you doing, Will Solace? What sort of lame compliment is that?

He exhaled in a single rush. Gods, he was a moron. “Okay. I’m just going to say it. I like you, Nico. As in, in a… non-platonic… way.”

In the wake of this confession, spoken to the ground at Nico’s feet, all Will could hear was his own heart pounding in his ears. And he could hear that Nico was definitely not replying.

“Okay, well,” Will hurried on, disappointment sinking into his very bones, “we can pretend that didn’t happen, if you want. I don’t have any, you know, expectations or anything.”

He turned to leave, hating the idea of telling Kayla about his utter, abject failure.

“I know.”

Will turned. A hint of a smile was on Nico’s lips, which Will didn’t understand. “What… what do you know? That I don’t have any expectations, or—?”

“That you like me,” Nico said, sounding exasperated. “I know.”

Will’s mouth moved, but no noise came out.

“Especially considering your flirting during the battle was really obvious.”

Will had to be hallucinating, right?

“So, are you going to kiss me or not?”

Yes, okay, this was definitely sensory overload. “I…” Will managed.

Again, Nico rolled his eyes. “Oh, come here,” he said. He grasped the collar of Will’s shirt, tugged him forward, and brought their lips together.

Okay,  _ this  _ was sensory overload, but the best kind. Nico’s lips were soft and determined against his own; Will even thought he could feel Nico smiling slightly into the kiss. After a stunned moment, Will responded, leaning into the kiss and bringing his hand up to brush against the silky curls that gathered at the nape of Nico’s neck.

When they broke apart, perhaps a minute or a year later—Will had lost track of time—they grinned at each other. Will was gratified to see that Nico’s face was at least as pink as Will’s felt.

“Wow,” Will breathed, then cursed himself inwardly. What a stupid reaction.

Nico only laughed, though. “By the way,” he said, “you are pretty dense for a doctor.”

“What?” Will blinked.

“The rhyming spell faded earlier today,” Nico pointed out. “I’m cured.”

“Oh.” Will been too distracted by his own inner turmoil and nervousness to notice, but indeed, Nico hadn’t been rhyming for their entire conversation. “So… why were you hiding all day?”

Now Nico’s smile became sly. “I wanted to see if you’d come check on me again. You’re very predictable.”

“Shut up.” Will could tell he was blushing again.

One of Nico’s eyebrows lifted in challenge. “I’m no longer willingly mute. You’re going to have to  _ make _ me shut up, Solace.”

The flirtatious tone in his voice made Will’s heart flutter. Gods, what had he gotten himself into? He grinned and pulled Nico further into his arms. “I wonder how I could possibly do that.”

Nico laughed and pressed their foreheads together. “You’re my doctor, as you keep reminding me. You’ll figure something out.”

In response, Will kissed him again. Nico was right; he did figure it out.

**Author's Note:**

> Thought process while writing this:  
> A few paragraphs in: Why are there so few Nico-rhyming stories?!  
> After writing one (1) rhyme: Oh, that's why.
> 
> Anyway, hope you liked! I love kudos and comments ;)


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